Variation in Surgical Rates: Fact vs. Fantasy

Few data raise such profound questions about the role of elective surgical care and safeguards for its appropriate application in developed countries than the marked variation in rates of elective operations found among either developed nations, or smaller geographic regions within single countries, or enrollee groups of differing medical-insurance plans.1 2 3 My purpose is to explore some general questions raised by the observations of varying rates of any type of elective procedure, and the specific issues brought into focus by the article on tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy in Manitoba by Noralou Roos and her colleagues elsewhere in this issue of the Journal . . .